Dear Mr M

Someone, our narrator, is stalking Mr M. Mr M is a famous writer, but his most successful book, which told the story of a young couple who murdered one of their teachers, was published many years ago. These days, the lines at bookshop signing sessions just about reach the door of a small shop; one upon a time they stretched far down the road outside. Why would anyone be so fascinated by the detail of the day-to-day life of a writer whose great success lies far in the past? Our narrator clearly dislikes Mr M, intensely. But does he actively wish him ill? Is he planning violence against him? Or worse? And why? Gradually we realise that our narrator, seemingly unknown to Mr M, has good reasons to be concerned with him. Many years ago, he and a teenage girlfriend killed one of their schoolteachers. Their story provided the inspiration for Mr M’s novel. But the story told in the novel is not the story we are to hear from the killer himself. Mr M in effect took the most crucial moment of his life story and made him into a fictional character. And he is not happy about it, not happy at all …